


the weight of an empty life will lessen in the moonlight

by bakunawaa



Series: the only thing that doesn't die is love [2]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Angst, Full Moon, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mentions of Myth & Folklore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:48:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27040750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakunawaa/pseuds/bakunawaa
Summary: “get out of here ricky, please,” he steeled, using the last of his humanity to speak. he groaned in pain as his claws cut through his fingers, body changing rapidly before ricky’s eyes. “i don’t want to lose control.”ricky reached out, calm and gentle as ever as he continued gaping at the transformation in front of him. “i won’t let you lose control.”“you don’t know what I could do. i–i could hurt you. i don’t want to hurt you…” ej whispered.orricky catches ej in the middle of a full moon.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/E.J. Caswell
Series: the only thing that doesn't die is love [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1973575
Comments: 7
Kudos: 34





	the weight of an empty life will lessen in the moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> *pokes rj tag with a stick* do something
> 
> title from 'living dead' by marina and the diamonds

The bite marks Ricky left on EJ’s neck didn’t last very long.

They faded after a few hours. EJ didn’t particularly miss them.

He did miss the way Ricky felt underneath him, however; all slim waist, cold skin, smooth and tiny and easily breakable. He missed the finger shaped bruises scattered across the vampire’s hips; the love bites marking him and pestering all over Ricky’s neck and chest. Not that they lasted very long, either. Ricky had his own accelerated healing ability, anyway.

But EJ wanted more, as much as he didn’t want to admit it. He’d thought for a moment that this would just be a one time thing between him and the vampire, that they just needed to get something out of their systems. Maybe Ricky would finally leave him the fuck alone after this.

That didn’t happen obviously. And in the two weeks since, Ricky proceeded to sneak through EJ’s bedroom window in the middle of the night for a good drilling seven times already. And what was EJ supposed to do? Say no? Like he’d pass up seeing Ricky cry and whine and writhe underneath him again. He might be a werewolf, but he was also still an 18 year old with raging hormones.

His insane sex drive could also have been due to the fact that it was the week of the full moon. EJ usually got  _ embarrassingly _ horny during those weeks; always had to suppress the nagging urges to  _ claim  _ someone _ ,  _ to ignore the intoxicating scent of pheromones coming from the other teenagers around him. But he was getting good at controlling himself by now, considering he had a lot of bigger problems to worry about during a full moon.

He’d never had anyone he could let those desires out onto, not until Ricky. Ricky let EJ bite and sink his teeth and smell and  _ possess _ ; Ricky let EJ do all the embarrassing things EJ only dreamed of in previous week-of-the-full-moon jerk off sessions.

But sometimes the  _ itch _ under his skin that came in the days before a changing couldn’t be scratched by sex.

It was finally Saturday, the day the moon would come out, and the wolf in him was desperate to show itself. EJ was on edge for most of the day; legs shaking incessantly, hands fidgeting constantly, and his brain working a mile a minute. He hated turning, hated never knowing what was going to happen when the sun went down.

EJ liked being in control and it was never easy to take control when he turned. He’d done as much research as he could, read somewhere that werewolves needed something to  _ anchor _ them through a change and so far, EJ still hadn’t found his anchor. He’d tried music, good memories, smells; nothing seemed to help him stay under control except chaining himself to the walls of the basement. He’d had to change the bolts of the shackles every time he’d turned so far; he was getting stronger and closer to pulling them loose after every change. His dad once caught him with the screwdriver and industrial level bolts and said nothing about it. But EJ guessed that was to be expected from a parent who kind of forgot that you existed on most days.

As the sun began to set and the sky shining from the small window of his dreary basement lost its color, EJ took a deep, shaky breath and locked the tight shackles around his wrists. He slid down the cement wall of his basement slowly as he watched the last of the orange sunset fade into dark blue, fists clenched and heart beating out of his chest as his body felt the change approaching.

It was going to be a long night.

*****

Ricky crouched in the frame of the open window, brows creased in confusion as he scanned EJ’s empty bedroom. He jumped off the wooden panel and hummed considering, hands on his hips.  _ Little Lycan’s not in his room desperately waiting for me to bend over...did I do something to make him mad? _ the sarcastic vampire thought to himself.

With his enhanced abilities, however, it didn’t take long for Ricky to sense where EJ was, smelling the werewolf on his nose. He walked through the house on quick feet; it was eerily empty, eerily lacking any sort of personality. White walls and leather couches, modern art hanging in shiny frames and expensive ceramic sculptures placed on elegant wooden tables. It looked like a model home, uninhabited and unlived in. Not a single family photo in sight.

Ricky shivered as he walked through the house. He was a  _ vampire _ for fuck’s sake and his house was more alive than the Caswell residence.  _ Imagine wasting your life in this prison...I’d rather die. Oh wait. I already did. _

Ricky chuckled at his own joke before stopping at a slightly ajar door, darkness behind it. He reached out for the doorknob but hesitated; he knew EJ was somewhere behind the door; could easily recognize his scent. But something in Ricky’s brain was telling him to turn around, run in the other direction. He almost had half a mind to be  _ scared, _ despite all of the fucked up shit he’d seen in his ‘life’. If he still had a heartbeat, it would probably be pounding in his chest.

He shook his head and reached out, ignoring the feeling and opening the door. The basement was riddled in darkness besides the light coming from the lone window, painting the dreary grey walls in the glow of the moon. Ricky walked down the creaky wooden stairs apprehensively, every step squeaking underneath his foot and breaking through the unnatural silence.

He turned in a slow circle as he reached the bottom of the stairs, walking around the grey basement; hard cement walls, dusty metal shelves holding boxes and tools, old furniture pushed in corners, and a wall shadowed in darkness across from where Ricky was standing.

Ricky narrowed his eyes, about to take an apprehensive step towards the shadows when EJ lunged at him out of the darkness, making the vampire reel back in fright as EJ pulled on the chains and snarled at him. Ricky cursed himself, glancing up at the dark sky through the small window and seeing the moon almost fully risen amongst the clouds.  _ Ah fuck, How could I forget. _

The vampire watched with wide, almost amused eyes as he took in the sight of EJ. The moon hadn’t fully risen yet so he hadn’t completely turned, but he was getting there; eyes glowing an other worldly shade of blue, hair sprouting at his sideburns in wild directions, ears pointed at the tips. A rush of adrenaline ran through Ricky’s veins seeing EJ like this, on the edge of control; wild and pulling on the chains binding him to the cement wall, clothes beginning to rip and stretch as his muscles grew, fangs baring as he growled at Ricky.

“Why the  _ fuck _ are you here, Ricky?” EJ bit out, voice lower than Ricky had ever heard and making something in the vampire’s stomach flip. He could smell it, could smell the  _ blood _ rushing through EJ’s veins; changing, turning him into something else. It was a richer, darker scent than what Ricky had come to know and it smelled  _ delicious. _ But for EJ’s sake, Ricky urged his desire to drink down.

He took a step closer, hand about to reach out but flinching as EJ tried to lunge at him with a deep bark. “Sorry...forgot it was a full moon. Wanted to continue our little escapade from last night,” Ricky replied, keeping his cool and continuing his slow steps toward the turning werewolf.

“You shouldn’t be here. The moon is almost fully up…I can feel it. I can feel myself about to lose control,” EJ gritted through his teeth, taking deep breaths, muscles twitching as they felt the full change approaching.

“You’re down here all alone...you have no one to help you through your changes?” Ricky wondered genuinely, hand reaching out just the slightest bit more as he got closer to EJ.

The werewolf scoffed, a cruel and ugly sound. “Of course I’m alone. I’m always alone.”

“What about your parents? They don’t know about you–”

Ricky flinched once more as EJ strained against the chains, the metal digging into his skin. “No, they don’t fucking know! They don’t know fucking  _ anything _ about me, they don’t give a shit about me! They didn’t even ask me if I was okay after my accident when I got bit...just picked me up from the fucking hospital and paid the medical bills after getting a call from the police. Why the fuck would I tell them about this?! They wouldn’t do jack to help. They didn’t even take care of me when I was a regular kid, fuck if they’re gonna take care of me as a  _ werewolf _ .”

The vampire paused where he was, taking in everything EJ just said. He realized that the other teen was out of control; could feel the moon so close to its nightly residence and knew that the only reason EJ was telling him this was because he probably couldn’t stop himself from doing so. But Ricky stored it in the back of his brain anyway.

He opened his mouth to speak, to maybe provide some comforting words when suddenly EJ seized, muscles straining under his skin and a pained hiss leaving his lips. Ricky watched with entrapped eyes as EJ howled to the clouds, and the vampire whipped his head to the window behind him and saw the full moon high in the sky, ready to watch over the night.

EJ heaved as fur began sprouting over his body and Ricky watched intently as the boy grew in size. “Get out of here Ricky,  _ please _ ,” he steeled, using the last of his humanity to speak. He groaned in pain as his claws cut through his fingers, body changing rapidly before Ricky’s eyes. “I don’t want to lose control.”

Ricky reached out, calm and gentle as ever as he continued gaping at the transformation in front of him. “I won’t let you lose control.”

“You don’t know what I could do. I–I could hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you…” EJ whispered before crying out in pain as the last of his humanity slipped away, his wrists struggling against the shackles holding him and howling as he became a wolf.

Ricky didn’t even really need to breathe, mostly just mimicked the action so as to seem more human around his peers. But in this moment, eyes round as he took the sight of the werewolf in, his chest rose and fell in complete awe.

It had been a while since he had seen a werewolf this close, maybe 20 or 30 years. It was fascinating, breath-taking, beautiful and terrifying all at once; the only remnants of EJ on the menacing wolf standing in front of him, were the piercing turquoise eyes staring Ricky down and glowing in the darkness. Ricky wanted to jump and shout, exclaim his excitement at seeing a werewolf, of seeing  _ EJ _ as a werewolf, but he held back his urge as he noticed the wetness of the wolves eyes, the desperation in them.

“Hey…” Ricky whispered into the night, stepping closer. He ignored the increasing growl that echoed from the wolf’s throat as he reached out slowly. “You’re not gonna hurt me, okay? You’re not going to hurt anybody. I won’t let you.”

His fingers shook as the wolf bared his sharp teeth but Ricky had become headstrong and fearless in all his years of unwillingly being on this planet. He hesitantly placed his hand onto the wolf’s nose, gently comforting. Ricky let out a breath he didn’t even need to hold as he felt EJ relax against his touch.

Ricky laughed quietly to himself, an air disbelief and awe in his expression. “See?” he placated, delicately tracing his up the wolf’s head and scratching behind its ear. “You’re good. You’re not gonna hurt anyone.”

The wolf purred against his touch, sound rumbling through his chest and Ricky was daring so he stepped even closer, wrapping his arms around the werewolf and snuggling his face into the dark fur. Even he was surprised to feel EJ relax in his arms, muscles looser and leaning against Ricky for support.

“Hey, come down here with me. Sit down here. You’re gonna get aches from standing and struggling against these chains all night,” the vampire comforted gently, guiding the wolf form of EJ to lay down on the ground. Ricky sat criss cross and the wolf snuggled close to him with a hum, laying its head in the boy’s lap.

Ricky laughed as he continued stroking and petting the werewolf’s fur. “That’s good, see? You’re good. I won’t let you hurt anyone. I’ll stay here with you all night if I have to.”

The moonlight shining through the glass of the window reflected on the glimmer of EJ’s glowing eyes and Ricky smiled, humming quietly to himself. He watched the werewolf's ear twitch uncontrollably as he scratched behind it and continued to talk to EJ, albeit never receiving a reply.

Ricky didn’t mind the long night.

*****

EJ woke up with a crook in his neck and a weight on his chest.

He blinked, eyes bleary as the sunlight from the lone window shined bright in them. He was a bit disoriented from his change, used to not remembering too much from the night before. Mostly, he was used to waking up anxious and shaking and in pain. Used to finding a shit ton of bruises and scratches from pulling the chains and scratching the wall and God knows what else. He didn’t have a good anchor to bring him back down to Earth when he turned, so he almost always ended up hurting himself, either physically or mentally. Most of the time, both.

This morning, however, besides the inevitable bruises appearing underneath the shackles on his wrists and ankles, he didn’t feel the familiar paint of anxiety in his chest that he had gotten used to. Instead, he felt confusion as he looked down and saw a pair of arms wrapped around his middle and the face of a snoozing vampire cuddled into his chest.

“Ricky?” EJ whispered into the light of the morning, which was hitting the vampire’s cheek and adding a golden sheen to his otherwise pale skin. The werewolf nudged the sleeping boy gently, trying to wake him up. “Ricky. Hey. Wake up and get the fuck off me. I can barely breathe because of how fucking heavy you are.”

“God, I love waking up to the sound of your gentle and loving voice,” Ricky grumbled sarcastically, ignoring EJ’s request to instead nuzzle closer to the other boy with a hum.

EJ groaned in distaste but subconsciously wrapped an arm tighter around Ricky’s back. “Where did you even come from?”

“Mike and Lynne Bowen, nee Watson. Boston, Massachusetts. 1868,” Ricky deadpanned.

The werewolf just rolled his eyes in annoyance. “I  _ meant _ like. When did you get  _ here _ ? In my house. Next to me. How’d you even find me? I usually only come down here when there’s a full moon.”

Ricky’s brows creased in confusion and he sat up, looking down at the other boy who was waiting for a response with genuine curiosity. “You don’t remember anything from last night?”

“Uh. Not really,” EJ blinked, as if he was missing something. “I kind of black out during full moons most of the time. Why?”

“I came here last night, like, even before you fully turned.”   
  


“ _ What?!?! _ I could’ve killed you!” the werewolf chastised, sitting up to mirror Ricky.

The vampire scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Okay, well. You obviously didn’t. In fact, we had a very lovely time.”

“What do you mean?!? Why would you even think about coming here on the night of a full moon?! I could’ve lost control or broken out of my chains or bit you or–”

“Do you ever shut up? Jesus. I’ve never met a werewolf that had as much to say as you do,” Ricky teased. “Anyway, you don’t didn’t do a single  _ one _ of those things so it’s fine. Barely even growled at me.”

EJ blinked slowly. “What? That’s not possible. I always get violent when I turn. That’s why I have the chains,” he commented, lifting one of the shackles.

“Welllll. I dunno what to tell you because you were fine. All I had to do was scratch behind your ear and cuddle on the ground with you. I honestly found it  _ very _ endearing,” Ricky gushed, bringing a hand to his chest.

“I didn’t– I didn’t lose control?” EJ breathed in awe.

Ricky, unaware of how big of a revelation this was for the werewolf, just chirped. “Nope. You were totally calm. Totally cool and collected.”

And then it hit EJ, a line he read from a website that he scoured during the initial weeks after he got bit: 

_ “An anchor is something that grounds a wolf in themselves – their mind and their body. An anchor is something they can hold on to when they feel overwhelmed. An anchor is something that makes them feel calmer, more at ease, and more sure of themselves.” _

EJ had gone through a full moon transformation a few times now. Each one had gotten worse and worse; more painful, more violent. Each one left the shackles bolted to the wall more beat up than before. Nothing he did to ground himself had worked. It was getting increasingly frustrating trying to figure out what could anchor him.  _ Find an anchor. Something meaningful to you. Bind yourself to it. Keep the human side in control _ , the text had said.

He looked at Ricky, eyes searching the vampire’s face; the point of his nose, the light freckles dusting his cheeks, pale skin and cherry red lips. Eyes that glowed an unnatural amber in the morning. 

Anchor. Maybe Ricky was his anchor.

“You’re staring at me like a dog glares at a mailman,” Ricky commented, shifting uncomfortably under EJ’s piercing stare. “Could you st – “

But he was cut off as EJ placed both hands on his face and pulled him in for a deep kiss. Ricky’s eyes widened in surprise before he relaxed into it, melting as EJ licked into his mouth and breathless as the werewolf gently pushed him down onto the cement floor. EJ kissed Ricky until they were both gasping for air; hands running up backs, fingers gripping waists, and claws scratching skin. Claiming, marking,  _ grounding _ .

*****

Later, when they’ve migrated to EJ’s bedroom and Ricky’s knees are scraped from kneeling on the hard cement floor of the basement and his neck is bruised with finger shaped marks and his body is buzzing from the afterglow of rough sex with EJ, Ricky hums in contentment. He glances down at the werewolf laying on his chest, eyes closed and peaceful and leaning into the touch where Ricky is running his hands through soft brown hair. Ricky scratches at the nape of his neck, a spot he’s come to know makes EJ almost  _ purrrrr _ low in his throat and feels the rumble of the sound vibrating through the other boy’s chest.

Ricky lifted his hand momentarily to rub his tired eyes but was stopped as EJ grabbed his wrist and brought the vampire’s hand back down to his neck to resume his petting.

_ “I’m not a fucking dog” my ass... _ Ricky scoffed but bit back a smile.

EJ lifted his head from where he was perched, looking up at Ricky with wide eyes. “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did, Caswell.”

“How come you’re not, like, disintegrating right now?” EJ rushed out curiously, ignoring the jab. “The sun coming through from my window is beating down right on your face and– I mean you look  _ good _ but aren’t vampires, like, supposed to turn to dust in sunlight?”

Rolling his eyes, Ricky replied, “Do you want me to reenact the scene from  _ Infinity War _ or something?  _ Mr. Stark...I don’t feel so good! _ ”

“Can you not be a little shit for five minutes and answer my question.”

“ _ Fine _ ,” Ricky huffed, bringing his hand up and displaying to EJ a ring on his finger. It shined where the sun hit the garnet gemstone resting in the middle of a platinum band, deep vines engraved on the thick metal. “ _ This _ is what keeps me from having Peter Parker moments when I’m in sunlight. It was enchanted by some freaky witch lady way back in the day so that I could live as much of a ‘normal’ life as I could. A bunch of vampires actually have some enchanted thing they wear so that they don’t disintegrate. My brother Seb actually wears this sick dangly earring that’s shaped like a cross. Hilarious, right? Not that crucifixes actually do anything to us,” Ricky explained with a wave of his hand.

EJ leaned up on his elbow as he retained all the information Ricky threw at him with wide eyes. “Okay, okay, wait. So you actually  _ can _ die if you’re exposed to sunlight? And since when do you have a  _ brother _ ?? And what do you mean  _ crucifixes  _ don’t kill vampires?!?”

“Yes. Since always. And exactly what I said,” Ricky replied stubbornly, refusing to say anything else until the glare EJ was sending him his way made him crack. “ _ Okay _ . Yes, I could get hurt in the sun if I’m not wearing my ring. But I  _ always _ wear it, so it’s fine. No, crucifixes don’t hurt me in any way but keep that shit away from me anyway because I’m an atheist. And Seb’s not  _ really  _ my brother we’ve just been in the same clan for, like, 40 years now. He’s a sophomore at East High. Well. He got  _ bit _ when he was a sophomore so now he's just. Perpetually going to learn about the molecular makeup of, like. A leaf or something, I don’t know.”

“I’m learning so much about the supernatural world…” EJ commented sarcastically and began absentmindedly tracing his fingers along the bruises he left on Ricky’s pale neck.  _ Harder, Caswell. I’m not gonna break… _ he remembers the vampire urging through a breathy moan. “You like when I’m rough with you? Some kind of coping mechanism or whatever?”

EJ had meant it as a joke but Ricky leaned into his touch slightly and sighed. “I mean if that’s what the kids these days call it, then sure. I’ve been through some shit.”

“Like what?”

“Imagine your mom’s secretly a vampire and in order to keep her bloodline pure she kills your dad in front you and then chomps on your neck to turn you into a vampire too, thus bonding you to her clan of other freaky vampires who are creepy as shit and forcing you to watch your friends and family and loved ones all grow old and die while you stay the same age for the rest of your life and have to adapt and keep up with every new trend so as to make it seem like you’re not a hundred years old,” Ricky replies, staring blankly at the ceiling.

EJ just blinked, mouth agape. “Welp, yeah. You have been through some shit.”

“I’m not the only one though, right?” Ricky pried, turning to EJ with a raised brow. “Where are your parents, huh?”

The werewolf avoided eye contact and clenched his jaw, hand still resting on the other boy’s neck. “Business trip. Or something. I literally don’t know where the fuck they go half the time anymore. I just know they don’t give a shit about me.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be out of the house soon and you won’t even have to worry about them anymore. Parents suck, anyway. Trust me...none of this will last. Nothing ever really lasts,” Ricky turned away from EJ as he spoke the last sentence wistfully.

EJ narrowed his eyes, trying to decipher if he meant something else by the phrase, but chose to ignore it. He opted to grab Ricky by the jaw instead and force the vampire to look at him once more. He once again trailed his fingers lightly over the reddening bruises that were beginning to fade on Ricky’s neck, eliciting a shudder from the vampire. “You really like it when I mark you up like this?” he wondered, glancing up into the amber eyes of the other boy.

“Yeah,” Ricky replied, holding his gaze, an emotion that EJ couldn’t quite place hiding behind the vampire’s expression. “I just wish it would last longer.”

EJ brought the boy’s lips to his own in a slow but passionate kiss.

He had a sneaking suspicion that Ricky wasn’t just talking about his bruises.

**Author's Note:**

> the way i told yall to start writing some crazy ass aus in the last fic and what do yall do instead? nothing. legit nothing for a month -_- THIS FANDOM DEAD AS HELL i gtg bye
> 
> see yall next month for the next part of this series
> 
> if i ever actually make it lmao


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